Copyright, Disclaimer & Terms of Use

This blog does not operate for commercial purpose, but focuses on referee education and information only.

If you feel that any content is belonging to you exclusively or is misplaced, please contact us immediately so that we can remove it!

This also counts for comments which restrict you in your dignity and liberty, which are abusive or insultive. Sometimes such types of comments are not directly seen by this blog's administrators. In order to make them be removed as soon as possible, you can contact us via mail (see above).

Stats

December 29, 2014

As we are approaching the end of the year, time has come to reveal our annual global ranking of international referees. For the second time in a row, Dutch international match official Björn Kuipers is honoured by the blog and its community as The 3rd Team Referee of the Year 2014.

Kuipers: "Yes! No.1!" Rizzoli: "But it was scarce!" Pitana: "Be glad that you came second, I almost caught you!"

December 19, 2014

Walter López Castellanos from Guatemala has been appointed to handle the
final match of the 2014 FIFA Club World Cup, between Real Madrid
and San Lorenzo De Almagro, to be played on 20 December 2014 in Marrakech. He
will be assisted by Leonel Leal (CRC) and Gerson López (GUA).

A FIFA referee since 2006, López attended the 2014 WC as fourth official, after a long preselection's process.Prior to this assignment, the last CONCACAF referee appointed for FIFA CWC final had beenBenito Archundia from Mexico, in the 2009 edition. For Walter López, this will be the second match in the competition, after
having already refereed the play off for quartefinals. To complete the officiating crew for
this final, Noumandiez Doué from Ivory Coast will act as the fourth official.

A few hours earlier, the third place final will be played in the same
stadium, between Cruz Azul from Mexico and Auckland City from New Zealand. The
referee selected by FIFA for this clash is the Portuguese Pedro Proença,
at his second match in this tournament, after a quarterfinal. Enrique Osses will take the duties of fourth official. This could be the last international match for the Portuguese official, having hinted about a possible retirement after the tournament, especially in case of an appointment for the final match.

The 3rd Team is honoured to provide you with the entire list of international referees and assistant referees for the next year - 2015. Congratulations to all match officials included in this list and thanks to those who will leave it at the end of 2014!

December 12, 2014

UEFA's Referee Committee members have decided to promote Germany's Deniz Aytekin and Spaniard Antonio Mateu Lahoz to the highest category of European international referees. From now on, they belong to Elite Group. Congratulations!

++ Craig Pawson is the new English FIFA referee. ++
++ RFEF is the first association allowed to have more than three referees in Elite. ++
++ For the first time (in history?), France will not be represented in the Elite Group. ++

December 11, 2014

Tomorrow, on 12 December, UEFA's Referee Committee members are about to gather at UEFA's headquarters in Suisse Nyon. Without knowing the agenda of the meeting, it is relatively easy to guess that defining the promotions and demotions within their referee categories will be the focal point of discussion Pierluigi Collina and his colleagues are going to have. A prediction.

December 8, 2014

These are the officials appointed by UEFA for 2014-15 Europa League Group Stage Matchday 6. Besides some more experienced match officials, Pawel Raczkowski and István Kovács will make their Europa League debuts.

Surprising appointment for Porto - Shakhtar: French Ruddy Buquet will make his debut in UEFA Champions League. Additionally, Serbian Milorad Mažić will handle AS Roma - Manchester City under the eyes of Marc Batta. Portuguese Olegário Benquerença will attend his farewell game in Munich, while English World Cup final assistant referees Darren Cann, Renato Faverani and Andrea Stefani are about to finish their long careers in Camp Nou and San Mamés respectively.

December 7, 2014

Belarusian Aleksei Kulbakov will make his UEFA Champions League bow at Estádio da Luz being the showplace of SL Benfica - Bayer Leverkusen in Group C. Meanwhile, William Collum will handle one of the most important matches of Tuesday evening when Juventus Turin will fight for the runners-up place in Group A against Atlético Madrid. The Scottish will be assessed by the only UEFA Referee Committee member of the evening, Nikolay Levnikov. Find all appointments placed below.